Pro-Palestinian protester’s lawyer stopped and searched at US border: ‘They were going to take my device’

www.theguardian.com

Johana Bhuiyan Sat 12 Apr 2025 08.00 EDT

"Amir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a “TTRT” agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent’s face changed. He felt something “odd” was happening."

6 comments

Avoid traveling internationally with personal devices if at all possible. Check universities and libraries for loaners
- Or just buy and keep a secondary device in advance
- Except that might "prove" to them that you have something to hide.
  
  Anything can be used as an excuse by those people if they want, same way that cops can pull you over because “you swerved” and can search your car because “it smells of weed.”
  It’s totally a reasonable precaution to have an inexpensive phone that is used for international travel and has no significant personal info on it in the event of theft, loss, or other threats.
- At least leave the device powered off with a passcode. Even better graphene os which closes more ways for them to break in.

It will be called Fascism in 4 years when done against white Americans.

6 comments